


Different and Dependent

by Meomchwoyoongz



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Angst, Conflict Resolution, Drabble, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mentioned NCT Ensemble, Metaphors, POV Multiple, i love markhyuck smmmm, markhyuck summer fight of 2017 mentioned, my first post, pls be kind my fellow nctzens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-22
Updated: 2019-11-22
Packaged: 2021-02-17 22:17:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21517336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meomchwoyoongz/pseuds/Meomchwoyoongz
Summary: "She fell..." Mark whispered, glancing to Donghyuck who was pulled from the deep sea of thoughts he was attempting to drown himself in."maybe he pushed too hard..." Donghyuck whispered, hints of defiance in his voice to get the point across to Mark.There it was again, different thoughts, same situation, vastly different interpretations, and somehow, they never learned how to work through it. Mark could feel the cold biting again, he couldn’t place whether it was the wind or the boy next to him.
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan & Mark Lee, Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee
Comments: 1
Kudos: 50





	Different and Dependent

**Author's Note:**

> hi everyone, this is my first post in ever, and while I'm riddled with anxiety for posting this after being and an avid reader for such a long time, i would really appreciate your feedback in the comments as well as constructive criticism. Honestly, i love markhyuck as a ship so much, and i hope that everyone who reads this enjoys it. <3

"It's hot..." and Mark fell silent after his eloquent exclamation about the weather. Donghyuck rolled his eyes to the back of his head, an exasperated sigh escaping his lips and eliciting exactly the reaction that he wanted from the boy laying opposite to him.

  
“Shut up!” Mark laughed out, voice slipping out of his mouth in a wheeze. His legs were outstretched to almost meet Donghyuck’s head, the elder's head resting on a pillow haphazardly placed at the edge of the bed. White sheets were moussed and wrinkled, brown, furry blanket covering each of the boys' mid-sections, limbs lying parallel mirroring each movement as if they were the same person on opposite sides, which to anyone in their sane, cognizant mind would be capable of perceiving. ‘It was sad, simply put, how oblivious children are nowadays’, thought Donghyuck, as his eyes met with the play park out of NCT's dorms. A girl seated herself on the swings and 2 boys behind whispered to each other, he could see their eyes flit to the young maiden, her frilly dress blending with the pink of the cherry blossoms and to Donghyuck she looked so innocently beautiful, it seemed that the young lads had a similar idea, one boy fist bumping the other, and an encouraging smile later, the young boy, quite cliché and dapper-looking, was approaching the girl giving her a gentle push on her back. She startled, her feet dropping to the ground to steady herself, a fight or flight instinct immediately taking effect, like Donghyuck when he first laid eyes on the new boy from Canada.

  
_Donghyuck could remember the instantaneous course of envy that fuelled his ambition, upon seeing the well-put-together young boy. Lee Minhyung, the instructor had introduced him as, but he remembered the eccentric accent so characteristic of a foreigner, the lisp of broken Korean as the boy so-called Lee Minhyung stood, and without a fumble in his sub-par Korean, pronounced himself, Mark Lee… Canada… Guitarist, Rapper, new SMrookie._

  
The girl’s dress swayed with her motion to identify the perpetrator, but inevitably gave in as she turned to see his face, charming and irresistible, “love at first sight,” Mark said, unknowingly agreeing to the narrator in Donghyuck’s head. And somehow it reminded him of a certain pretty boy and himself, how their first meeting was characterised by a burning claim of each-other's title, it was never Mark and Donghyuck as separate entities but ‘Mark and Donghyuck’ as one, a pair, inseparable by not even their own will.  
"Wish we could go to the park," Mark said, and Donghyuck glanced up by the boy's comment realising that Mark's eyes were trained on the same spectacle playing out before them both, just outside their window, "Again..." and at his last word, Donghyuck responded lamely, "...yeah" remembering that Mark hated being outside, he chose to stay holed up in the damn studio all day, so why?

  
Because the last time they went to that park, it was the first day they'd moved into the dorms together, sharing silent moments of appreciation for each-other, and recognising that they'd be entering this world together. That they're not alone, and the friendship they'd forged with the knowledge that one may move on without the other suddenly became a red string of fate, one that they could stop enforcing because they'd made it, right? They didn’t have to try anymore, they were together, they were idols now, nothing could separate them, bound together for 7 years by a legal contract. It was autumn then, and though things seemed to be getting cod, there was still a faint hint of summer warmth in every draft of air. Mark was proud to say that he wanted to look at the glass half full, Donghyuck would argue that one needed to view the glass half empty. To him, it served as enough explanation for why he complained of the colder air, rather than savouring the warmer tints like Mark would.

  
Winter comes faster than they expected. And the trees become barren in the cold of night, no more hot whisky summer days, only frosty lonesome moons. Cold words, icy daggers stabbing into each-other's backs at every chance they got.

  
_“He’s immature, and I didn’t move all the way to Korea to deal with children like him!” Marks voice was as coarse as hail, he was bellowing his long-winded lamentations to Johnny, but Donghyuck was the only one getting frost bite from the cold. Protecting himself was his singular chance for survival, so Donghyuck would just slam the door against the wind, hoping it would withstand… outlast the frigid days._

  
They were opposites of the same story, sharing the same life and walking the same road in opposite directions, differing stances that clashed heatedly every night, a cold shoulder in the days that followed.

  
A loud scream and a crash, the clattering of metal chains against the steel support beams shaking them both out of the silence. A flurry of yellow sand forming a cloud at the front of the swing set obscured their view of the ongoings.

  
"She fell..." Mark whispered, glancing to Donghyuck who was pulled from the deep sea of thoughts he was attempting to drown himself in.  
"maybe he pushed too hard...," Donghyuck whispered, hints of defiance in his voice to get the point across to Mark.

  
There it was again, different thoughts, same situation, vastly different interpretations, and somehow, they never learned how to work through that winter. A gust of wind beat through their window, the curtains gently fluttering to frame the two boys, as they looked on. Mark could feel the cold biting again, he couldn’t place whether it was the wind or the boy next to him. The girl stood to shake off the sand, the boy offering a helping hand, a river of apologies spilling from his lips, Mark and Donghyuck didn’t hear, but they could sense the regret, the anxiety, the feeling of failure, from across the road, up in their dorms.

  
_Mark remembers how he felt stepping into Donghyuck’s room, after 2 months. The cold spell had been buried, there was a drought, and no flowers had bloomed even though the world had carried on. He felt regret for not speaking up sooner, anxiety, because Donghyuck was volatile and unpredictable, with no definitive telling how he’d react, failure, because Mark never failed, and he won’t fail to repair a friendship, that could cost him his career._

  
But time passed and spring must come. And as the sand settled, a gust of wind blew, and the cherry blossoms were whisked from the tree and graced the frills of the child's dress, the obvious distaste of being flung off the swing disappearing and replaced with amusement. And the girl laughed, shrugging it off as she’d done with the sand. Mark’s brain registered how familiar the relief on the boy’s face felt, as if he’d been in that exact situation before. Because he had… Mark resigned.

  
"Both," mark said matter of flatly.

  
"What?" Donghyuck asked softy. "Both," Mark confirms with a nod.

  
Both happened.

  
He pushed too hard.

  
And she fell.

  
And with those words a comfortable silence fell between the boys.

  
Relief was what Mark felt, for not fucking up a friendship that wouldn’t only cost him his career, but, as he suddenly realised, would cost him his flowers, his warmth, because he would have lost the sun, the sun that made his moon light up in the nights that he so loved.

  
Relief was what Donghyuck felt, because the cold had gone on for too long, and he’d almost lost his purpose, because now he had a moon to illuminate once again, someone who his light can cling to in the darkness of night.

And the boys and girl parted their ways in smiles after dispute, soon to meet again because they knew they’d made a new friend.  
So, spring had come.

  
They'd learned that there's always a solution, and it will never be the same as another's proposal, two people walking the same path, different directions, but will forever meet in their ceaseless round-about. They’d keep running, but star-crossed is their nature, and so they shall meet for the nights and see the morn together, flowers will bloom in their wake, and the cold will persist only when they chose to allow it.  
Mark and Donghyuck, sun and moon, different and dependent.


End file.
